Comment karma is very predictable, and requires very little novelty. Just hang out on the top posts of the hour, comment with a basic question or statement early on any of them, and you will pretty rapidly get large amounts of it.

Top comment here, for example: "Use the goddamn penguin!" This is a typical top comment. Not a standout at all, but it was the second comment and echoed a common sentiment, so as the first thing people saw, at the top it stays. If it had been the 20th comment, it would have gotten very little.

Intelligence and with help get a comment to the top, but they are completely unnecessary. Link karma, on the other hand, is luck and a good title and interesting content. The link rolls solo. You aren't dragged to the top by simple timing and latching on to good content. Of course, you can skip the challenge of content and title by just reposting something someone else has posted, so a lot of people do that, but even with proven content luck is critical.

Anyway, last point: There's just a hell of a lot more of it. The comments here, even on a relatively newer submission, even in one of the subreddits with relatively little discussion, already total at least as much karma as the original submission, assuming you ignore PaintedCeiling's massive negatives.